Lyft Slaps Small Agencies Virally

Lyft has put out an RFP virally on Twitter inviting agencies for a 10th slot on an RFP process that already has 9 candidates. The link is below. While each agency can decide what to do, I believe this fuels the already increasing syndrome of small agencies giving away their creativity for free to get a shot. I’ve seen this first hand. The mentality is that this is our chance to get noticed, so why not, go all out without any compensation for the work. I believe it is unfair to ask for ideas before intent. If Lyft was really interested in seeking out a new and undiscovered creative shop, it could just as well ask for examples of existing work before asking them to invest. Sadly, after the scramble, there may not even be the satisfaction of knowing what happened to your investment. I will be interested to see how many agencies jump in. Will it be just 10 or over 100? I fear it is more the latter.